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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (May 20, 2015)
B Section B S PORTS South Lane County Sports and Recreation Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail sports@cgsentinel.com Wednesday, May 20, 2015 photo by Matt Hollander Lions win third-straight league title Cottage Grove tee'd up for state BY MATT HOLLANDER The Cottage Grove Sentinel C ottage Grove golf has made quite a tradition of winning district titles. The Lions shot 717 over the two-day 4A Special District 2 Tournament, held May 11 and 12 at Tokatee Golf Club, to capture their third-straight league crown over Junction City (732) and Stayton (747). Despite the comfortable fi nal margin of victory, Cottage Grove ended the fi rst day with just a four-stroke advantage over Junction City and a nine-stroke lead over Stayton. The Tigers even held a brief lead over Cottage Grove on day two. But as they have done many times be- fore, the Lions played their best when it mattered most. Cottage Grove shot 352 on the second day of the tournament to pull away from all challengers. Senior Johnny Conrad shot 78 and 79 to win the individual title, and Cameron San- Cottage Grove sophomore Jeramy Hall (pictured), along with Johnny Conrad, Nick Russo, Cameron San- doval and Dylan Wooten, won the District 2 Championship last week and are competing at state this week. doval shot 87 and 84 to fi nish tied for second place. “They certainly seem to peak at the right time,” said Cottage Grove coach Kent Russo. “The past three years in a row, they’ve played their very best golf on the second day of the district tour- nament. They did what they had to do when it mattered.” By virtue of winning the regular-sea- son league title, the Lions had already punched their ticket to the 4A state tournament. However, there was no Please see GOLF, Page 3B Cottage Grove yields title to Sisters Borigo, Hammel — district champions — and Weybright qualify for state BY MATT HOLLANDER The Cottage Grove Sentinel JUNCTION CITY — For the fi rst time since 2012, the girls’ Sky-Em League track and fi eld crown will not belong to Cot- tage Grove. But the Lions left the district championships, held Thursday and Saturday at Junc- tion City, knowing that it was not for lack of effort. “There were a few more things that could have gone our way today, but for the most part we got everything we could out of this group of girls,” said coach Ricky Knutson. After Thursday, Cottage Grove trailed Sisters 46.5 to 39. But the Outlaws just had too much fi repower left to go. They scored 123 on Saturday for a grand total of 169.5 points. Junction City edged Cottage Grove for second, 113.5 to 113. “Things didn’t get off to a great start this year,” said soph- omore Hudson Weybright, who scored 17.25 points for the Li- ons. “They did start to pick up [midway through the season] but then some girls got hurt (Cot- tage Grove was without former state meet qualifi ers Chelsey Bottorff and Breanna Wright at districts). I still feel like we did our best, though, and next year is going to be even better as the underclassman get a better grasp of what they need to do and fi ll different roles on the team.” The Lions were within range of Sisters after day one thanks in part to Conner Borigo’s vic- tory in the shot put. She threw 36-2.75 in the prelims to easily outdistance her competitors. Please see GIRLS TRACK AND FIELD, Page 2B photos by Matt Hollander Above: Cottage Grove's Michael Tharpe leans at the fi nish line of the 110 meter hurdles to claim his fi rst Sky-Em district title Saturday at Junction City. Below: Conner Howard took a big lead into the fi nal curve of the 400 meters and held on for the victory. Howard snuffs out candles with the competition Geisler, Ledford and Tharpe also advance to the state meet BY MATT HOLLANDER The Cottage Grove Sentinel JUNCTION CITY — Connor Howard sure was showing his age on Saturday. The Cottage Grove junior celebrated his 16th birthday with a Sky-Em district championship in the 400 meters. Running the event for just the fi fth time in his career, Howard used the back- stretch to power away from the fi eld and held off Sweet Home’s Trey Reed in the closing meters to capture fi rst place in 50.62. He is now tied with Jon Schneider for the fastest automatically-timed 400 in school history. “It goes to show that hard work does pay off, and it was fun to be able to show what I can do,” said Howard, who will be seeded third at the state meet, which be- gins Thursday at Hayward Field. He also qualifi ed for state in the 200 by placing second in 23.26. Until recently, Howard’s focus had been on the 100 and 200. But his success in the longest dash comes as no surprise to Cottage Grove sprint coach Bruce Vo- gel. “He does a great job of getting out well and fl oating down the back stretch. But what I thought he did really well today was relaxing and gathering in the fi nal curve. With 10 meters to go the tank was empty, but he just wanted to win so bad- ly,” Vogel said. Cottage Grove got another individual victory from Michael Tharpe, who held Athlete of the Week Please see BOYS TRACK AND FIELD, Page 2B Cottage Grove drops two to Sweet Home, limps to the postseason Lions plays at North Marion on Thursday in the play-in round BY MATT HOLLANDER The Cottage Grove Sentinel S photo by Gary Ordway Sports Action Photography Cottage Grove's Brett Ollivant looks for a putout during the Lions 8-4 loss to Junction City on May 6. weet Home’s Brandon Keanon smashed a three-run homer in the top of the fi rst inning to lead the visiting Huskies (15-7, 11-4) to a 5-1, season- fi nale victory over Cottage Grove on Saturday. Hunter Harris drove in the Li- ons’ lone run (14-11, 6-9) with a double in the bottom of the fi rst inning. The Huskies also defeated Cottage Grove at home on Friday, 13-5. Pay- ton Presley had three hits for the Lions, who gave up nine unearned runs. However, there is life after death for Cottage Grove. The No. 19 Lions snuck into the play-in round of the 4A play- offs as the fi nal non-automatic qualifi er, and they will face North Marion (13-3, 10-5 Oregon West) on the road Thurs- day at 5 p.m. While the teams have comparable overall records, they certainly seem to be trending in opposite directions. The Lions are 2-9 in their last 11 games, and both victories came against lowly Sutherlin (3-22, 1-14 Sky-Em). Mean- while, the Huskies have won six of their last eight, including victories over two playoff-bound teams. “We’re glad to have a second chance,” said Cottage Grove coach Dan Geiszler. “[Despite the losses,] I haven’t seen a lot of difference in how we’ve ap- proached the plate; we’re still going up with confi dence. And I think the guys understand that we ran into a bad streak of us playing poorly and others playing their best.” The Lions and Huskies had a trio of common opponents this year. Against Cascade, Philomath and Stayton, Cot- tage Grove went 2-1, and North Marion went 6-3. “You can defi nitely learn things about an opponent based on teams that you’ve both played. But, unfortunately, so can they. And since those teams are in the same conference (the Oregon West), they will probably share things with North Marion about us, that they won’t share with us about North Marion,” Geisler said. Geiszler said that he expects to face a defensive-minded team based on the Huskies' run differential. Cottage Grove was scheduled to play Far West champion North Bend on Tuesday for its endowment game. SATURDAY, MAY 23 & SUNDAY, MAY 24 Saturday Events: Clark Printing Extreme Sprints, IMCA SportMods, Street Stocks & Hornets Sunday Events: 360 Sprints: Western Sprint Tour, Late Models, IMCA Modiϐieds & Hornets
